SDR / Whatever it is doing now / After an update or a surge

A firmware update that stopped · a storm · a bad power supply

After a firmware update, a surge or a bad PSU. Two different faults with the same result.

A firmware update that fails midway can leave the controller with no working code to boot from. A power surge, a lightning strike on the line, or a failing power supply can kill the drive's power stage outright, or catch it in the middle of a map update and corrupt the translation table. The screen looks the same in both cases: no drive, or the wrong size. The work is different, and the free look tells them apart. Tell us which it was, the firmware version if you know it, and what tool was used. One drive is £300 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing; board repair, where it is needed, is explained first.

Free first lookOne fixed figure in writingNo data, no bill on most jobsReturn postage paid

Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
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What an update writes, and what a surge breaks.

A firmware update rewrites the controller's program in the service area of the flash. The drive boots from the new code the next time it starts. If power drops or the tool crashes half-way, the service area holds part of the old code and part of the new, and the controller can boot from neither; it stays silent or falls into ROM. Your data is untouched by all of this, because the update never went near the user area. What is needed is working code, loaded into the controller's memory on the bench rather than written to the flash, and the map read back from a service area that is otherwise intact.

A surge is different. The drive's power stage, small regulators that make the voltages the controller and flash need, takes the hit first. A shorted regulator or capacitor leaves the drive dead and the flash intact, and that is board repair. Where the surge arrived mid-write, the map may also have been left half-updated, which is the same map rebuild as any firmware fault. A failing PSU can do the same thing slowly, over weeks of marginal voltage, which is why a drive sometimes dies in a machine whose other parts seem fine.

Two things not to do. Do not try the update again; a second attempt on a drive in ROM mode can write over what the first attempt left. And do not keep powering a surged drive to see whether it comes back, because a shorted regulator can take the controller with it on the next attempt.

What you see, and what it means.

Describe yours to us →

What you see	The usual reason	Where that leaves you
Dead straight after an update	The write stopped half-way; the controller has no code	Loader in RAM; map from the service area
Update tool says it succeeded, drive gone anyway	The new code will not validate on this controller	The same
Dead after a storm or a power cut	Power stage, or an interrupted map write	Board repair, then the map
Warm to the touch, never detected	A shorted component	Board repair
Machine's PSU replaced, drive still dead	The damage was done	Send the drive
Windows 11 update, drive vanished during a large copy (August 2025)	Reported widely; Microsoft found no link and Phison could not reproduce it	Whatever the cause, recovery is the same

From the box arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

A case number goes on it the day the parcel is opened, and an engineer settles what has actually failed before anything else happens. The drive is read on our own equipment, never in a computer that might send it a TRIM command. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNo TRIM, no writes

Powered on our terms

Every power-on gives a failing SSD another chance to run its own housekeeping. Here the drive is brought up in the controller's diagnostic state instead, which lets the bench speak to the flash directly and keeps damaged firmware out of the conversation.

Vendor diagnostic modeNo hopeful reboots

Past the fault, to the map

Working code is loaded into the controller's memory rather than onto the flash, the service area is read, and the translation table is rebuilt from what is there. Where the controller itself is dead, the chips are read one by one and the controller's scrambling and error correction are undone in software.

Loader in RAM, never on the flashMapping tables put back together

A full image, then the volume

Nothing is worked on live. The whole drive is imaged once, weak pages retried in their own passes, and the file system is put back together on the image. Encrypted volumes are unlocked there too, with the key you supply, and never on the original.

One careful imageThe volume verified end to end

You see the file list before you pay

What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the job3–5 days at the bench

From the bench

The data was never part of the update. Firmware lives in its own area of the flash. A failed update leaves your files exactly where they were.
Do not run the update again. A second attempt on a controller in ROM mode is a second chance to write over the service area we need.
A surge finds the cheapest component first. On most consumer drives that is a regulator on the board, and replacing it is quick work.
A tired power supply kills drives slowly. If a second drive has died in the same machine, the PSU is the suspect, and it should go before the new drive goes in.

On the August 2025 Windows update: owners reported SSDs vanishing during large writes after KB5063878. Microsoft later said it found no connection between the update and the failures, and Phison said thousands of hours of testing could not reproduce it. We do not blame the update, and we do not need to: the recovery is the same whatever the cause.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · SDR-2026-0369JOB LOGGED ✓

A Samsung 980 Pro that went silent half-way through a firmware update

The owner ran the update Magician recommended and the power went during it. The drive never came back. In the controller's diagnostic state it accepted a loader with working code into RAM, the service area read back with the half-written module skipped, and the map was intact beneath. The drive was imaged whole and the photographer's decade of edits opened first time.

100% of it recovered3 days here, and back by post

Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

Power it off and leave it off
Note the firmware version before and after, if you know them
Tell us which tool was used, or what the storm did
Check the machine's PSU before fitting a new drive

What sets us back

Running the update again
Powering a surged drive repeatedly
Assuming a PSU replacement fixes the drive
Blaming a Windows update in the hope of a warranty claim

Questions answered before you commit.

The firmware update failed. Is my data gone?

No. The update rewrote the controller's program, not your files. Working code is loaded into the controller's memory on the bench and the map read back from the service area.

Should I try the update again?

No. A second attempt on a drive in ROM mode can write over the service area we need.

A storm killed my PC. Is the SSD recoverable?

Usually. A surge takes the drive's power stage first, and that is board repair with the flash intact. Where the map was mid-write, it is rebuilt.

Did the August 2025 Windows 11 update kill my SSD?

Microsoft investigated and found no connection; Phison could not reproduce it. Whatever the cause, the recovery is the same and the free look tells you where you stand.

What does it cost?

£300 + VAT for one drive after the free look. Board repair that moves the figure is explained before you agree.

Where this usually leads.

Not detected →Firmware and controller failure →Shows 0GB →Samsung →NVMe M.2 →

Nothing gets worse while the power is off.

Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. Until that list reaches you, leave the drive switched off.

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